Laura Gibson, PhD studies public health interventions with large-scale capacity to improve health and wellness. She joined Christina Roberto’s Psychology of Eating and Consumer Health (PEACH) Lab at the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) in 2018 as the Deputy Director, where she manages all data-related activities. Current projects assess the impact of existing and potential nutrition policies (e.g., the Philadelphia beverage tax, nutrition labeling interventions) as well as the health impacts of unconditional cash transfers. She is multiple-PI on an NIH grant looking at the impact of the Philadelphia beverage tax on health outcomes among adults and children. She has worked with both the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services on several public health projects. Previously, she supported the development and evaluation of anti-tobacco mass media campaigns (e.g., the FDA’s Real Cost campaign and proposed cigarette warning labels Philadelphia’s “quit with help” anti-smoking campaign) through research with Robert Hornik & Joseph Cappella at the Annenberg School for Communication.
Dr. Gibson wrangles and analyzes datasets of all sizes in Stata and R (sometimes with machine-learning in Python) and mentors staff developing data collection systems, frequently in REDCap or Qualtrics. She is an active member of the Medical Ethics & Health Policy Department’s Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion advisory group. She earned her PhD in Psychology in 2006 from Harvard University.
